The Shanahan regime left most of the protection setting to the center, not allowing Griffin much flexibility to change things at the line of scrimmage. While Gruden had his center heavily involved in Cincinnati, he also gave quarterback Andy Dalton the freedom to change the protection, and even the play, at the line of scrimmage if he saw fit.

The Shanahan regime left most of the protection setting to the center, not allowing Griffin much flexibility to change things at the line of scrimmage. While Gruden had his center heavily involved in Cincinnati, he also gave quarterback Andy Dalton the freedom to change the protection, and even the play, at the line of scrimmage if he saw fit.

But OldSchool told us repeatedly that it was RGIII's job to set the protection. I find it hard to believe he didn't know what he was talking about, and pulled his criticisms straight out of his butt.

Quarterback Robert Griffin III will work with quarterbacks coach Terry Shea next week. Griffin worked with Shea earlier this offseason for a week, but wanted another tune-up before training camp begins July 24. Shea focused hard on Griffin’s fundamentals, including narrowing his base, getting his feet to turn with his body in the pocket and raising where Griffin held the ball -- at times last year he held it too low, leading to a wind-up throw. Griffin clearly has worked hard this offseason. I'm curious to see how that pays off this summer and during the season. He’s also said to have his explosion back, as has been discussed for a while – as multiple people have talked about seeing a difference in that area. But the real key for him is developing in the pocket. Griffin needs to succeed without that extraordinary explosion, though it certainly does help when defenses fear your legs.

Skepticism over RG III ranking: Last week Mike Sando wrote a terrific piece, ranking quarterbacks based on a poll of executives and coaches and evaluators . Griffin did not fare well, being placed as a tier 3 quarterback tied with Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton. The rankings prompted Kevin Seifert to question why Griffin had fallen so far after just one bad season; he also asked if they had forgotten a record-setting 2012 season. People fall in and out of love quickly in the NFL and I think Griffin is the latest example. Watch how fast opinions change if he gets off to a good start.

Here are the facts as I see them: Griffin dropped into a dysfunctional situation, one that contributed to him being on the field for a career-changing knee injury at the end of his rookie year, and his biggest fault to date has been an inability to prevent the franchise's collapse.

How quickly the league seems to have forgotten about his 2012 performance, which was the single-biggest reason the Redskins qualified for the playoffs for the first time in five years. And look how fast the league has jumped on his 2013 campaign, viewing it as a step back rather than a predictable short-term consequence of his injury -- and the byproduct of a poisonous coaching arrangement that left him as a pawn in a nasty fight between coach Mike Shanahan and owner Dan Snyder.

One head coach in the story doubted Griffin's ability to throw from the pocket. A defensive coordinator also questioned how accurate Griffin can be from there. I wonder if that perception is based on a thorough analysis of his play, or if it's a lazy projection based on the usual assumption that talented runners can't (or don't want to be) accurate pocket passers.

In truth, data shows that Griffin has been one of the NFL's better-performing pocket passers over the past two seasons. According to ESPN Stats & Information, he ranks among the top 11 qualified passers in completion percentage (65.0), touchdown/interception ratio (2.13) and Total Quarterback Rating (65.5) on passes thrown from the pocket during the 2012 and 2013 seasons combined.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------"You can't do epic **** with basic people." - DJax"We’re winning off the field, but we’ve got to start winning on the field." - Bruce Allen

Ya people be like oh Ya he had this terrible season.. and that stats be like Whaaaat the hell u talking about. We didn't win as much but HE played pretty Damn good for the most part. We learned that he can't win every game for us, that we need the TEAM to step up, and that mike shanty was done as a coach

Redskins OC Sean McVay said Robert Griffin III "looks like he is exactly what he was in the 2012 season."

"I think people underestimate when you have a brace on your knee how much that truly restricts you," McVay continued. "So I think being able to take that off, he looks extremely explosive."

The knee brace may have played some role, but Griffin's lack of explosiveness last season had much more to do with rushing back from knee surgery. Neither issue should hold Griffin back this season. Griffin is poised for a bounce-back campaign. He has a chance to be a nice value pick at his current late sixth-round ADP.

cowboykillerzRGiii wrote:Ya people be like oh Ya he had this terrible season.. and that stats be like Whaaaat the hell u talking about. We didn't win as much but HE played pretty Damn good for the most part.

So I do agree with you, but a many of his TDs came in garbage time at the end of a few games. We sort of forget how bad he and our offense was in the first few games when the games were competitive; his end stat line for those games looked okay, but those stats were very misleading...

For example, Eagles-Skins in week 1. In the end, RG3 had 329 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs. But the Eagles were up 26-7 at half (with that lone Skins TD being the Hall fumble return). By halftime, RG3 had thrown 2 INTs, the Skins also lost a fumble and gave up a safety, and AS A TEAM, had 34 yards on offense. 169 of RG3s yards came in the 4th quarter, with the Eagles nursing a 26 point lead.

So, totally misleading stats.

I'd rather just acknowlege it was a bad year, and look forward to this year and all the work he's putting in.

cowboykillerzRGiii wrote:Ya people be like oh Ya he had this terrible season.. and that stats be like Whaaaat the hell u talking about. We didn't win as much but HE played pretty Damn good for the most part.

So I do agree with you, but a many of his TDs came in garbage time at the end of a few games. We sort of forget how bad he and our offense was in the first few games when the games were competitive; his end stat line for those games looked okay, but those stats were very misleading...

For example, Eagles-Skins in week 1. In the end, RG3 had 329 yards, 2 TDs and 2 INTs. But the Eagles were up 26-7 at half (with that lone Skins TD being the Hall fumble return). By halftime, RG3 had thrown 2 INTs, the Skins also lost a fumble and gave up a safety, and AS A TEAM, had 34 yards on offense. 169 of RG3s yards came in the 4th quarter, with the Eagles nursing a 26 point lead.

So, totally misleading stats.

I'd rather just acknowlege it was a bad year, and look forward to this year and all the work he's putting in.

...and while I agree with YOU about some of this "garbage time", I wouldn't say "many Td s". We weren't blown out of every game he played, and happened to win 3.

However, I'm not totally sold on the garbage time theory. Why would a team, other than the skins, take the foot off the gas?? LET the opposition score? No. Maybe our O took a while to get going (Kyle called some plays) and the guys did their job and made some plays. No cb in the league is gonna lay down and let an opposing wr work up a career day just Cus they are winning by a large amount of points. The "lax" coverage... I don't buy it. We had some costly errors in the first half but had it gone a different way it could have been a shoot out.

Or are the Patriots the only team w a good coach who never lets off the gas and goes for the kill?

On that note I hate how Shanny used to go into conservative mode go three and out give up a Td and windle any big lead we ever had away. Case in point: vs the pukes on Turkey day 2 years back.

For the whole garbage time theory to be sound, wouldn't the browns and Oaklands qbs have monster stats???

I guess my point is- regardless of stats RGiii had a better year then people give him credit for. We had issues on both sides of the ball owell as special teams. We had bad play calling, bad game management, but RGIII- particularly after a quick return little off-season to develop played as good as any other "Good" qb. I know I wasn't the only one who saw him make his progressions at times before the line got blown up. I also know the qb gets all the glory and all the blame, just that I'd still take our qb over most (ok Ya over anyone Cus Im bias and know he will be one of the greatest to play the position) after what people call a "crap year"

Briles on RG III: Baylor coach Art Briles watched his former quarterback, Robert Griffin III, work out earlier this week. He saw a guy he used to see with regularity. "I think it's as fresh and uplifting as I've seen him in a long time quite honestly," Briles said on the SiriusXM Blitz Wednesday via Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post. "The thing about ACLs: I've always thought they take a complete year to get over. And I think he rushed himself a little bit, just because that's the way Robert is. He's always going to be determined to do more than is humanly possible."

Briles' prediction? "So I think this year, I do think we'll see a very healthy RG III. I think we're gonna see a guy that's happy playing the game, that has a fire and attitude that you need to have a chance to be successful, because that's who he is."

Revisiting Week 1 2013: Steinberg also wrote about former Redskin Chris ey saying that Griffin should not have started the 2013 opener. It wasn't because of Griffin's health, but rather his readiness. Griffin was cleared by doctors and was ready physically. But it's clear in hindsight he was not prepared to play in an NFL game. Mike Shanahan did a bad job of managing Griffin, from not pulling him in the Seattle game despite his gut feeling to do so and to being afraid of how his moves were perceived by the young quarterback. If you have a conviction on something, do it. Instead, Shanahan did not and instead we got the mess of last December.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------"You can't do epic **** with basic people." - DJax"We’re winning off the field, but we’ve got to start winning on the field." - Bruce Allen